Noche UFC, aka UFC 306, doesn’t have any fights listed on the UFC’s official website, but as we move closer to the historic event at the Las Vegas Sphere, things are beginning to come into focus.
On Thursday, former UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway responded to a post from the division’s current king, Ilia Topuria, on X. If we can take Holloway for his word, and why wouldn’t we, the two stars could be headed for the main card at Noche UFC.
Topuria challenged Holloway to pick a date and how the latter wants to be finished. Holloway responded in this post:
Holloway’s ‘toe hold’ reference may have been in jest, but the prospect of a showdown with Topuria in The Sphere is beyond intriguing.
Based on how much UFC CEO Dana White has said the promotion is spending on the event and how the show has been hyped up, it is sensible to expect to see a card that rivals or perhaps exceeds what we saw at UFC 300.
At UFC 300, there were two legitimate title fights and the spectacular BMF championship between Holloway and Justin Gaethje. Holloway’s buzzer-beater KO was arguably the most incredible ending we’ve ever seen in combat sports.
The win reignited Holloway’s, and as you can see from his post, it also appears to have gotten Topuria’s attention. Topuria has expressed a desire to take the BMF title from Holloway while defending his title against one of the elite 145-pounders he must defeat if the champion hopes to join the pantheon of all-time greats in the division’s rich history.
If Conor McGregor is healthy and ready, he will almost certainly headline the card, and it also makes sense for Alexa Grasso vs. Valentina Shevchenko 3 to land on the card. Alex Pereira vs. Magomed Ankalaev also makes sense as the co-main event.
That would leave a nice spot on the main card for Holloway vs. Topuria just before Pereira-Ankalaev on arguably the greatest main card in the history of mixed martial arts. Imagine this as a main card:
- Main Event: Conor McGregor vs. Michael Chandler
- Co-Main Event: (c) Alex Pereira vs. Magomed Ankalaev
- (c) Ilia Topuria vs. Max Holloway
- (c) Sean O’Malley vs. Merab Dvalishvili
- (c) Alexa Grasso vs. Valentina Shevchenko 3
Would three million pay-per-view buys be out of reach–even at $99.99? I’m not sure that number would be unreachable, and the promotion will break every gate record they’ve ever had with ticket sales at the destination arena.
There could be some concern about packing one card with too many title fights. If this is what we see as the main card, the only champions not in action would be Raquel Pennington, Zhang Weili, the winner of Israel Adensanya-Dricus Du Plessis, the winner of Leon Edwards-Belal Muhammad, Jon Jones, Islam Makhachev and Alexandre Pantoja.
Considering Jones is scheduled to fight in October, Edwards at the end of the month, and Adesanya-Du Plessis in August, the UFC will need to carefully plan their main cards with smart star distribution to keep things lively through the rest of the year and the first quarter of 2025.
Let’s hope Holloway gets the date he mentioned and the rest of that main card materializes, as I’ve speculated here.
In any case, the thirst for details on Noche UFC is real, and the fighter references only drive the demand for concrete information.
